58 LIFE OF 



case was to he submitted to his decision, in which 

 the Bank of the United States was concerned. He 

 immediately sold a share which he field in the stock 

 of that institution, lest, unknown to himself, his mind 

 should be in the least biassed. He was so much on 

 his guard aj^ainst his private affections, that his 

 friends used to say, that his enemies had the better 

 chance of a favourable judgment. The truth is, 

 that he considered neither friends nor enemies; jus- 

 tice in liis judgments was the single object that he had 

 in view. 



His moral qualities were of the highest order. It 

 lias been said, that the panegyrists of great men can 

 rarely direct the eye with safety to their early years, 

 for fear of lighting upon the traces of some irregular 

 passion. But to the late Chief J ustice may be applied, 

 the praise of the Chancellor D'Aguesseau, that he 

 was never known to take a single step out of the nar- 

 Yow path of wisdom ; and that although it was some- 

 times remarked that he had been young, it was for 

 the purpose not of palliating a defect, but of doing 

 greater honour to his virtues. Of his early life, few 

 of his cotemporaries remain to speak ; but those few 

 attest, what the harmony of his whole character in 

 later years would infer, that his youth gave presage 

 by its sobriety and exemplary rectitude, of all that 

 we witnessed and admired in the maturity of his cha- 

 racter. It is great praise to say of so excellent a 

 Judge, that there was no contrariety between his 

 judgments and his life, — that there was a perfect con- 



